Sim Bar or Sim-Only: The 0K vs 00K Business Decision
Should I add a bar and kitchen to my golf simulator facility? Adding F&B to a sim facility increases total revenue by 50-60% but doubles operating costs, triples staffing requirements, and adds 6-12 months of buildout time. A 4-bay facility with a full bar and kitchen generates $22,000-$35,000/month in total revenue at 35% utilization, with $11,000-$18,000/month from bay rental and $11,000-$17,000/month from F&B. The same facility without F&B generates $14,000-$18,000/month in bay rental alone with 30-40% lower operating costs. The choice depends on your market size, available capital, operator experience, and risk tolerance.
What is the profit margin on F&B in a sim facility? Alcohol carries 70-80% gross margins. Food carries 3-8% gross margins. The blended F&B margin in a well-run sim bar is 55-65%. But the net margin after labor, rent, and overhead drops to 15-25% for the overall facility. A sim-only 24/7 facility can achieve 70-85% gross margins and 35-45% net margins.
What is the revenue split between sim rental and F&B? In a mature sim bar, F&B accounts for 50-60% of total revenue, bay rental accounts for 35-45%, and events/coaching make up the remaining 5-10%. The average F&B spend per customer visit is $15-$25 on top of the bay rental fee.
Every week I get an email from someone planning to open a golf simulator facility. They have the equipment picked out. They have the location in mind. They have the budget roughly figured out. And then they ask the question that determines everything else: “Should I add a bar?”
The answer is a series of questions about your market, your capital, your experience, and your risk tolerance. Most people answer the question backward — they decide they want a bar because it sounds fun, and then they build a business around that decision. The ones who survive are the ones who start with the math and let the answer emerge from the numbers.
I have tracked 70+ facilities across 18 boom updates. I have watched sim-only 24/7 facilities print money with nobody on staff. See our 24/7 facilities guide and franchise comparison for how the models stack up. I have watched sim bars with beautiful buildouts and full kitchens bleed cash for eighteen months before closing. The F&B decision separated the winners from the losers every time.
Here is the framework you need to make that decision for your specific situation.
The Two Paths: What Each Model Actually Looks Like
Path A: Sim-Only (No F&B)
This is the 24/7 model that Another Nine and Golf Envy have scaled. There is no staff, no bar, and no kitchen. Customers book online, show up, swipe a keycard, and hit balls. Some models have a self-serve beer fridge or a snack vending machine, but the core offering is bay time, not hospitality.
The numbers: A 2-bay sim-only facility requires $50,000-$100,000 to open. Monthly operating costs run $2,100-$5,400. The largest expense is rent (12-15% of revenue). There is no labor cost. Gross margins run 70-85%. At 30% utilization, a 2-bay facility generates $6,000-$10,000/month in revenue. Net profit: $3,000-$6,000/month.
The operator experience: You set up the equipment, configure the booking system, and collect the money. You visit once a day to clean and restock. You might spend 5-10 hours per week on the business. This is a passive-ish income stream, not a full-time job for most owners.
The risk profile: Low. Your fixed costs are minimal. If utilization drops, you lose potential revenue but you do not have a payroll to cover. You can survive a slow month. The business can run for weeks without you touching it.
The ceiling: Low. You have no F&B markup to increase average ticket. Your revenue per bay is capped at the hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours you can fill. The only lever you have is utilization.
Path B: Sim Bar (F&B Included)
This is the Back Nine, X-Golf, and Five Iron model. 4-8 bays, a bar, a kitchen, staff, events, leagues. Customers come for the sims and stay for the drinks and food. The operating model is a hospitality business that has golf simulators, not the other way around.
The numbers: A 4-bay sim bar requires $150,000-$300,000 to open (kitchen buildout alone: $50,000-$150,000). Monthly operating costs run $7,600-$19,100. The largest expense is labor (30-40% of revenue). At 35% utilization, a 4-bay sim bar generates $22,000-$35,000/month, with F&B contributing 50-60% of that total. Net profit: $3,500-$7,000/month.
The operator experience: You are running a restaurant. You need a general manager, bartenders, cooks, and servers. You need to manage food cost, pour cost, inventory, health inspections, liquor license compliance, and staff scheduling. If you have never run a hospitality business, you are about to learn the hardest way possible.
The risk profile: High. Your fixed costs are significant. A slow month means you still pay the same rent, the same staff, the same insurance. You need 6-12 months of working capital to survive the ramp period. If the kitchen is losing money, the sim bays cannot subsidize it indefinitely.
The ceiling: High. A well-run sim bar generates $80,000-$100,000 in annual revenue per bay when you include F&B and events. The same bay in a sim-only model generates $40,000-$60,000. The sim bar has higher absolute profit potential, but it also has a higher chance of losing everything.
The F&B Math: Where the Money Actually Comes From
For a sim-only facility, the average ticket is straightforward:
- Bay rental: $40-$60 per hour, split 1-4 people
- Average per-person spend: $15-$25 per visit
- Average per-bay revenue: $40-$60 per hour
For a sim bar, the average ticket gets more interesting:
- Bay rental: $40-$80 per hour, split 1-4 people
- Average F&B spend per person: $15-$25
- Average per-bay revenue: $55-$105 per hour (rental + F&B)
The F&B markup increases per-bay revenue by 35-75% depending on how much your customers drink and eat. But here is the catch: the F&B revenue comes with its own cost structure.
The Margin Breakdown
| Revenue Source | Gross Margin | % of Total Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Bay rental | 85-95% (software + utilities only) | 40-50% |
| Alcohol | 70-80% (pour cost + inventory loss) | 30-40% |
| Food | 3-8% (ingredients + waste + labor) | 15-25% |
| Events/Coaching | 60-80% (staff time + equipment wear) | 5-10% |
The blended gross margin for a sim bar is 55-65%. The blended gross margin for a sim-only facility is 70-85%. The sim bar makes more total revenue but keeps a smaller percentage of it.
Higher margins do not always mean more money in your pocket. The question is which model leaves more net profit after all expenses.
The Net Profit Comparison
For a 4-bay facility at 35% utilization in a mid-market city:
Sim-only (24/7, no staff):
- Monthly revenue: $16,000
- Monthly operating costs: $4,500
- Monthly net profit: $11,500
- Annual net profit: $138,000
- Time commitment: 5-10 hours/week
Sim bar (staffed, full F&B):
- Monthly revenue: $30,000
- Monthly operating costs: $18,000
- Monthly net profit: $12,000
- Annual net profit: $144,000
- Time commitment: 40-60 hours/week
The sim bar generates roughly the same annual net profit as the sim-only model for 6x the time commitment and 3x the startup cost.
The sim bar becomes more attractive when you scale to 6-8 bays, because the fixed costs of the F&B operation are spread across more revenue. A 6-bay sim bar at 35% utilization might generate $45,000/month in revenue with $22,000 in operating costs, netting $23,000/month. The sim-only equivalent at 6 bays would net $17,000/month with 10 hours/week commitment.
The Decision Framework
Here are the five questions that determine whether you should add F&B to your sim facility.
1. What is your market population?
If your market has fewer than 200,000 people in the trade area, do not build a sim bar. The population is too small to generate enough traffic to cover the fixed costs of a kitchen and bar. Build a sim-only 24/7 facility instead. The lower overhead means you can survive on smaller customer volume.
If your market has 200,000-500,000 people, a limited sim bar with beer and wine only (no kitchen, or a minimal kitchen with prepackaged food) can work. Think Back Nine-lite, not Five Iron.
If your market has 500,000+ people, a full sim bar with kitchen and liquor license is viable. The population density provides enough off-peak traffic to keep the kitchen staff busy.
2. How much capital do you have?
A sim-only 2-bay facility can open for $50,000-$100,000. A 4-bay sim bar needs $200,000-$300,000 minimum. If you have less than $200,000 in total capital, you cannot afford to build a sim bar. You will run out of money before the kitchen is operational.
The rule of thumb: add 50% to whatever you think the buildout will cost. A kitchen buildout that the contractor quotes at $80,000 will cost $120,000. A liquor license that the broker says will take 3 months will take 8. The sim bar model punishes undercapitalization more than any other mistake.
3. Have you ever run a hospitality business?
If the answer is no, do not open a sim bar. The sim industry is full of first-time restaurant operators who thought running a sim facility would be easy because they like golf. It is not. Restaurant operations are brutally difficult. The failure rate for first-time restaurant owners is 60% in year one.
If you have never run a bar or restaurant, start with a sim-only model. Learn the sim business first. If the facility is profitable and you want to add F&B later, you can renovate and add a bar in year two or three. You cannot undo a kitchen buildout.
4. What is your risk tolerance?
The sim-only model is a singles double. You will not hit a home run, but you will not strike out either. The sim bar is a swing for the fences. You could make 3x what the sim-only model makes, or you could lose your entire investment.
If you are investing money you cannot afford to lose, build sim-only. If you have the capital and the stomach for a higher-risk, higher-reward play, the sim bar is the better long-term bet.
5. What is your exit strategy?
Sim-only facilities are easier to sell. The equipment is the main asset. The business can be run remotely. A buyer does not need hospitality experience to take over.
Sim bars are harder to sell. The business depends on the staff, the local reputation, and the operator’s relationships. A buyer needs to understand restaurant operations. The multiple on sim bar EBITDA is typically lower than sim-only EBITDA because of the operational complexity.
The Hybrid Option: Beer and Wine Only
Between the sim-only model and the full sim bar sits a hybrid that more operators should consider: a beer-and-wine license with prepackaged food or a partnership with a neighboring restaurant.
The economics are better than sim-only (alcohol at 70-80% gross margin adds $5-$10 per customer visit) without the overhead of a full kitchen. You avoid the kitchen buildout cost ($50,000-$150,000), the health department inspections, the food cost management, and the line cook payroll.
The beer-and-wine license costs $500-$3,000 depending on your state, compared to $5,000-$50,000+ for a full liquor license. The staffing requirements are lower — one bartender can serve a 4-bay facility on a slow night, while a full kitchen needs a cook, a dishwasher, and a server.
This model works best in markets of 100,000-300,000 people where a full sim bar would be overbuilt but a sim-only model would leave money on the table.
The Verdict
The F&B decision is the most consequential choice you will make as a sim facility operator. It determines your capital requirements, your operating costs, your staffing needs, your risk profile, and your time commitment.
If you have never run a restaurant, start sim-only. Add F&B later if the math supports it. The sim bar model and the sim-only model are different businesses with different requirements. The operators who fail are the ones who build a sim bar because they think it sounds fun, not because the numbers tell them to.
Build the business that fits your capital, your market, and your skills. The sims will still be there either way.